So, here's the deal (as it stands NOW): I'm what you might call a "classically" trained writer; I'm compelled to have beginnings, middles and ends within whatever I might write, and, even worse(!!??), I feel constrained by AP style and to pander to what numerous of my newspaper editors call the comprehension level of the "average" reader. (My training came as a byproduct, seemingly necessary at the time (THEN<<<), of being a free-lance writer more or less since 1988.) Nevermind that the "average" reader doesn't exist, he or she (or se or the entity who may find their consciousness focussed on whatever my editor chooses to publish) governs the publishing world. It's why you don't find too many big words, like superinfrastructure or hypercoded metalanguage, in your daily newspaper. For some, that's no big loss. For others, it's part of the problem.

OK, so here we are now, somewhere in the "middle" of what I'm posting. Fighting my training, I recognize that I'm not limited to pursuing the threads or themes that I've already discussed, but part of me really (really) can't see the point of going somewhere SO else. (Now, I'm going to check my email. OK, I'm back.) What to do?

One thing that's becoming apparent -- but only because I gave it the chance to become apparent -- is that I might not have discussed these paradigmatic limitations unless I'd started this sort of lame-o haphazard thread of an idea. I also realize that I may not have the energy or enthusiasm to REALLY engage the form I've started in a way that I'll look back on later and think, "Boy was I smart back then."

Does being smart "then" have anything to do with NOW?

Overheard in Breadworks today:

"It's 1890s email"

-- one middle-aged dude to another over a box filled to the brim with "old" postcards

OK, I started this post about 20 minutes ago, and now it's time to go to class. My vector has been spent. See you in the later.